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Pregnant Chicago Teen Killed, Baby Ripped From Her Womb
Police believe Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui may have been lured to a Chicago home under the pretense of getting baby clothes for her unborn son.
Editor's Note: Marlen Ochoa-Lopez's name was initially reported as Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui.
Chicago Police say a missing pregnant teen was killed and had her baby ripped from her womb—after going to a home believing that she was going to retrieve baby clothes for her unborn son.
Police found the body of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez in a garbage can behind the home of a 46-year-old woman who had claimed that have just given birth to the baby boy, according to The Chicago Sun Times.
The same day the Ochoa-Lopez disappeared, the woman called 911 saying she had just given birth and was suffering “post-delivery issues,” a police source told the local paper.
When Chicago Fire Department paramedics arrived CPR was already “in progress” and the baby was “basically blue,” department spokesman Larry Merritt told The Chicago Tribune.
The baby was rushed to the hospital and is now in grave condition. Ochoa-Lopez's family told the paper that the baby, who has been named Yadiel, was on life support with no brain function.
Ochoa-Lopez, who was nine months pregnant at the time, was last seen leaving Latino Youth High School on April 23. The victim’s family said Ochoa-Lopez a married mother of a three-year-old son, had met a woman through a Facebook group and had planned to meet the woman to get baby clothes.
"She was giving clothes away, supposedly under the pretense that her daughters had been given clothes and they had all these extra boy clothes," said Cecelia Garcia, a spokeswoman for Ochoa-Lopez's family.
Police now believe the teen had been lured to the home.
“We believe that she was murdered and we believe that the baby (was) forcibly removed following that murder,” Chicago Police Department chief spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Police have not identified who they believe carried out the gruesome act but have taken four people considered persons of interest in the case into custody.
“We believe all of them played some role in this unspeakable act of violence,” he said.
Police were able to determine Ochoa-Lopez and her husband Yiovanni Lopez were the parents to the young baby after receiving a tip in the case. They used Lopez’s saliva along with hair found on a brush at Ochoa-Lopez's home to confirm they were the biological parents.
The teen’s husband said the family is now left grief stricken.
“I have a lot of pain, a lot of anguish, a lot of sadness,” he told The Sun-Times in Spanish. “It’s painful to lose your wife, the woman you love the most. It’s painful.”
He said the family is now focusing on seeking justice for Ochoa-Lopez.
“We’re gonna go hard after them. We won’t let it go,” he said.
No formal charges have been filed yet in the case.
